Bill Wright was selected for the “Partner of the Quarter Award” for his dedicated and loyal services to the Indiana H.C.S.C. Alumni Club for 32 Years! He has served in several positions and is presently the representative for the JCPenney Foundation. Bill has always been involved in meeting agendas, contacting and encouraging member participation.

In 1951, Bill married Ann M. Masi. They moved several times and had four children while doing so. In 2019, unfortunately, Ann passed away. They had 58 years wonderful years together.

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Bill served 5 1/2 years in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Illinois and in Colorado before receiving an honorable discharge in 1956.

Bill started with JCPenney in 1956 and was loyal to the Company for 34 years. The different positions he held involved a group meeting with Mr. James Cash Penney in the New York Office. Mr. Penney was aware of the store that Bill worked in, which was in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. They were in New York to develop a “Manual” on how to run a Shoe Department using Bill’s nine years’ experience in shoes. He also was assigned to various positions in Indiana including South Bend, Indianapolis, Speedway, Eastgate, Southern Plaza plus surrounding areas like Green Bay, Wisconsin, Mankato, Minnesota, and Mattoon, Illinois. He retired while in Mattoon in 1991.

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Here are some of Bill’s favorite memories of his store days:

“Eastgate Store 1736:  After getting promoted to assistant manager, there was a fire. Very little was burned, but the heat and smoke smell were very destructive; the entire inventory had to be sold at a fire sale. As soon this was over, with the help of the District Office, our associates got the store restocked and reopened in nine weeks. From then on Eastgate was one of the better stores in the JCPenney Company in dollars per square foot---$250 was the good number and it continued until the store closed in 1975 when the Company opened Washington Square. It was a great store to work in. I am very thankful for all the help the late John Hughes gave me during our time together at Eastgate.

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Speedway Store 1809: I arrived in Store 1809 in July 1976.  It was a small store in a strip center about five miles from the Lafayette Square Penney Store and four miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We worked very hard to clean the store and made it look like a proud Penney Store. In 1978 the region had a contest for Map stores. The associates got behind this challenge and with the help of some Penney partners, we were able to get the store spruced up and won the contest. The associates were very proud, happy, and appreciative of the award. Little old Speedway had won something.

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Downtown Indy store 1486: Things happened, I was there and find it hard to believe it. We had a shoplifting problem; we would chase shoplifters down to Indiana Ave…then stopped for our own good. Had a shooting in the store, had a couple of lock-ins overnight. Store 1486 had four levels with many back stairs and lots of places where anyone could hide. It was a different kind of store. We had a candy department and had a special every Wednesday morning. One year for Halloween, we ordered one ton of miniature Mounds bars for 44 cents a pound.  And we sold all of them.”

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During his retirement, Bill surely is keeping busy with gardening and golfing (at least three times a week, weather permitting) and he would not miss his Thursday night “poker game” for anything!